Stop borrowing without saving, Janet tells Ugandans
Ms Janet Museveni (R) launches the Equi-Mama product at Ntungamo Municipality on Wednesday. PHOTO | FELIX AINEBYOONA
What you need to know:
- The South Ankole Diocese Bishop, Rt Rev Nathan Ahimbisibwe, said the church is committed to fighting poverty at the household level through agriculture and asked the government to support them in value addition.
First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni has asked banking institutions to encourage people to save before they can borrow.
Ms Musevni said the first building block in development is saving which must be inculcated amongst the Ugandans before they are encouraged to borrow.
“I appeal to the leaders to mobilise women and youth who will benefit from these innovations by institutions, and teach them the discipline of saving and investing using the little they have. The principle of saving must come before borrowing,” Ms Museveni who was officiating the launch of Equity Bank’s initiative dubbed Equi-Mama in Ntungamo District said on Wednesday.
Ms Museveni said women and youth are faced with long-term difficulties in accessing finances to support their enterprises because of failure to have collateral due to limitations in exercising their property rights.
“These barriers have a significant impact on their ability to promote the growth of their business. As you know, empowering women and youth has been dear to my heart and this new product contributes to achieving this goal,” she said.
Ms Museveni said it is important for Africans to seek homegrown solutions other than depending on foreign support that only places the continent at the tail end of development.
The South Ankole Diocese Bishop, Rt Rev Nathan Ahimbisibwe, said the church is committed to fighting poverty at the household level through agriculture and asked the government to support them in value addition.
“We want to chase poverty out of Ntungamo and the country at large at the household level. Why are we poor yet God gave us very fertile soils and everything surrounding us? As a church, we are into intensive agriculture and we will fight poverty from our people,” he said.
The Equity Bank Managing Director, Mr Anthony Kituuka, said the Equi-Mama product will help break the barrier for women to access credit from financial institutions to develop their small-hold businesses.
“Our product is designed to specifically address the unique needs of women at the micro level. We have taken a customer-centric approach, conducting extensive research to understand the financial challenges women at the bottom of the economic pyramid face,” he said.
Mr Kituuka assured the government that they want to make it easy and affordable for women and youth to have access to money without much bureaucracy.
